With this recurring series, the aim will be to share owner experience for cars in the family fleet. This is a primarily Audi household, with a fairly regular rotation. The idea here then is to provide ownership, upkeep experiences as well as driving impressions.
For this first update, the focus is simply to introduce the current mix of cars. Further backstories on each will come later.
2023 AUDI RS 5 COMPETITION SPORTBACK
A new acquisition, this car was acquired used via an independent dealer Manheim Imports. With under 10,000 miles on the odometer, it represents a nearly new car for a substantial discount.
The B9.5 ended production not long ago as Audi shifted over to B10 production. And while B10 A5 and S5 sedans are now hitting dealerships, you can still find this generation B9.5 RS 5 in new car inventories around the country.
From my perspective, the RS 5 competition is the specification to get. While all RS 5s are very capable cars, the competition adds in special equipment including its most significant component change – KW-sourced factory coilover suspension that really transforms the car.
Seeking something unique, black probably would have been my last choice given it seems to be the most common configuration on RS 5 competitions. However, the car came into inventory at a dealer I know well and the price was very fair. Further, as blacks go, Mythos Black Metallic is an attractive take, with flecks of dark green in proper sunlight.
This car dos have some wear on it, some things I’ll be dealing with over time. It had just arrived in inventory, with calls coming in from all over so I grabbed the car right away. It appears three of four wheels were damaged when new tires were put on the car, and for some reason it’s missing the special RS 5 competition floor mats that would have come with it. Even still, It’s a phenomenal addition to the garage.
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2022 Audi e-tron Premium Plus
Not our first e-tron, we’ve had one solidly in the household since 2019 when they first hit the market. This is our second, and having watched the aggressive levels of depreciation on EVs in general, we purchased a used e-tron Premium Plus specification with Audi Certified Pre-Owned warranty from Audi Wilmington.
The purpose of the e-tron in this fleet is for logging miles. The quiet comfort of the car and its 200(ish) mile range is perfect for the 75-mile daily round trip commute for which it serves, while the extended warranty offers great peace of mind that nothing unexpected will happen during its term of service.
This is our second e-tron, having traded the first once it went off warranty. That car had been a project car in Audi Club’s quattro Magazine and so I had some parts that had come from the previous car. For delivery, we had Audi Wilmington install some of those parts, namely Q7-spec 22-inch “tarantula” split Y wheels. While they don’t help range, they look great.
2018 Audi A5 Sportback 2.0 TFSI quattro Prestige
Another recent addition to the fleet is this early B9 example of the Audi A5 Sportback. Spied in inventory at CarMax as a used car for a newer driver in the household, it offered plenty of safety equipment with great style. It’s likely one-of-a-kind, an Audi exclusive example sold new through Audi Pittsburgh painted in a rare robin’s egg blue-like color known as Cumulus Blue.
Obviously, the CarMax experience is very different from the Audi dealer experience, so we’ll dig into that in a future update.
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1985 Audi quattro
If cars could talk, this one could likely tell a most interesting story. I purchased the car years ago, weathered as it is, via another known Audi enthusiast and collector in Colorado. The initial plan was to make it the prototype basis of a start-up quattro reimagining business much like ABT is doing now. My plan was to work with a known car business in the space where I’d do conceptualization, marketing, branding and social… since I don’t build cars.
As these business projects are sometimes want to do, pieces fell apart in the process and priorities change. The car stuck around though. And while rare, with Audi having built not much more than 80-some 1985 U.S.-spec ur quattros, this one’s not exactly collector grade. It’s solid though, and frankly I’ve fallen in love with the patina, so my plan is to play around and make it a patina rally car. Parts get acquired here and there, but so far progress has been slow. Perhaps pointing the spotlight at it will make it happen faster.
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1972 Audi 100 Coupé S V8 quattro
Never sold in America, the Audi 100 Coupé S was a fastback coupe version of the beautiful and yet somewhat boring C1 100 LS that was sold in America. The Coupé inspired the modern A7, with looks of a classic muscle car… if scaled down just a bit. Granted, its front-wheel drive 4-cylinder drivetrain is anything but muscle.
That muscle car idea wasn’t lost on the guy who saved this car and made it what it is today – V8 and quattro swapped. I spied the car listed on a Facebook Group for vintage Audi fans and pursued it. The car was located outside of Stockholm, Sweden, but this was the pandemic, I was bored and automotive importer Jamie Orr of Orchid Euro is a close and local friend. It didn’t hurt that the exchange rate with Sweden at the time was also favorable.
Jamie imported the car, and even featured it. I’ll share that here. It’s been garaged either here or at Audi Wilmington ever since. It sounds amazing and gets attention whenever it makes an appearance, but its Frankenstein nature means it’s got some things that need sorting.
The story is a fantastic one, and I’ll expand upon it more, but for now the question is whether or not to keep it. The enthusiast in me says yes, but the older and wiser part of me that knows my mechanical skill limits and the cost of projects (two, if we’re counting it alongside the quattro), makes me seriously consider sending this one off to a new home and specifically someone who can take it to the level of build quality it deserves.
